Rebirth
by andredimera
Summary: After being kidnapped by a malicious entity, J.J. Deveraux is plunged head first into the world of the extra-normal. But what led him to this place with these people? And what does the recent death of his girlfriend, Paige Larson, have to do with it?
1. Chapter 1 - Kyle Kidnaps Paige

Author's Note: This story is a collaboration between myself and my good friend and fellow author, heroicmuse. For the half of this story that is written by him, I am so grateful. Please follow his stories, as he is an excellent author!

* * *

Paige stared straight ahead as she picked up her phone. She glanced at JJ's photo on her display, then touched it, gently, closing her eyes as she made the call. "It's me, Paige," she said, her voice soft. "There's something I need to tell you. C-can you come to my dorm room?"

"You okay?" JJ asked, hearing the slight tremor in her voice.

Paige swallowed hard. "Yeah. Fine. It's just, certain things can't be said over the phone because you don't know who might be listening. Um, I'll explain everything, I promise. I… I love you."

"I love you too." JJ sounded surprised. "I'll be there soon. Hang tight, okay?"

Paige hung up the phone. She glared at nothing, not daring to turn around and face the person who was pressing the barrel of a gun hard against her shoulder. "I did exactly what you told me and I didn't give anything away. I don't know what you want with JJ, but you'd better not hurt him since I cooperated completely."

Her captor laughed as he grabbed her wrist and twisted hard enough to make her drop the phone. Paige yelped and Kyle pressed the gun harder against her shoulder and said in her ear, "Shut up, bitch. Now that's real cute, telling me what to do like you think I care about you at all." He twisted Paige's arm behind her back so hard that her knees buckled and she had to grab onto the bench to stop from falling.

Kyle smashed Paige's phone with his foot. Then he pressed the gun harder into her shoulder and said, "Both of you deserve what you get, trying to double cross me. Only reason you're alive at all's cause my boss wants to deal with you his way. But that's gonna change if you don't start being a good girl and doing what you're told without the attitude. Start walking and make it look like nothing's wrong." He began marching Paige out of the park, holding her arm firmly against her back and the gun against her shoulder. Paige wriggled, but he poked her with the gun and she stopped, letting him walk her through the gate without saying a word.

"All right, baby girl," Kyle said under his breath a while later. He'd used duct tape to tie Paige up pretty tightly. He'd made her lie down in an old suitcase and taped her wrists together behind her back, then taped her ankles together and pulled them up behind her so that he could tape them to her wrists.. Then he'd shoved a rolled up cloth into her mouth and pressed tape over her lips, smoothing it out to make sure the gag was tight enough that she wouldn't be able to make a sound, before zipping up the suitcase so he could carry her all over town without anyone knowing.

Now he was unpacking the suitcase, unpacking her, really. He opened it on the floor of her room, then picked her up and dragged her into the closet, where he lay her facedown on the floor. "I'd tell you to be quiet but I don't think you got a choice," he said, laughing to himself. He took the blanket off her bed and threw it on top of her and then threw some clothes on top of the blanket so that nobody could possibly know she was there before sliding the suitcase in next to her.

Paige heard the closet door lock. It was dark, very dark. She could barely see. She tried to sit herself up but could not. She lay still, trying to figure out what the hell Kyle was doing. Why had he kidnapped her just to imprison her in her own closet? Sooner or later Daphne would come looking for her to take her to class and find her tied up and locked in, so what was the point? It didn't make sense. Shouldn't he have taken her somewhere else and tried to interrogate her about working undercover for the cops or something?

Paige could feel the gag slipping into her throat. She was choking, she was sure of it. She could even hear herself gasping for the choking sounds stopped and she realized she was still here, still breathing. _What the hell?_ she thought.

A second later, she heard the room door creak open. "Paige?" JJ called.

 _In here,_ Paige thought. She tried to call to JJ, to warn him to get out before something happened to him, but she was gagged too tightly and couldn't even make a muffled sound. She struggled to slide forward on her stomach but it was impossible to move more than half an inch. She couldn't get her head anywhere near the door and she couldn't make enough noise hitting it on the floor to accomplish anything. She pulled against the tape, groaning silently under the gag, then lay still and prayed that Kyle wouldn't hurt JJ as bad as he'd hurt her.


	2. Chapter 2 - Paige's First Death

Upon entering the dorm room, J.J. could sense that something wasn't right. Something was terribly, terribly off. He called Paige's name, but got no response. He saw the bathroom door open, so he went to investigate. Upon entering, he found the curtain over the shower. Not unusual. What was unusual was that Paige's shoe was sticking out of it. J.J. ripped back the curtain to see his love lying there, in the shower, a red necktie wrapped around her throat.

He quickly made his way into the shower, saying "Paige" repeatedly, trying to look for some way to wake her. He pulled the necktie off of her and listened for a heartbeat. When none came, he felt her neck for a pulse. All he felt was Paige's cold flesh. "No." he cried. "No!'. J.J. pulled out his phone and dialed.

A woman's voice came on the other end "911. What's your emergency?". J.J. couldn't bring himself to say anything. He was overcome with emotions. "Hello?" the woman said, wondering if he was still there. "What is your emergency?".

At last, J.J. found his voice. "M-my girlfriend...she-she's...". "Is she in physical danger?" enquired the officer on the line. "Just send someone! Please!" J.J. cried. "Salem U dorms, Building C, Room 202. Please, hurry!" J.J. put down the phone. Crying, he gathered Paige in his arms and kissed her cheek.

In the closet, Paige's head jerked up, forcing the tape tighter around her wrists and making her body ache. _JJ_ , she thought, praying to somehow reach him telepathically. _Don't cry, please don't cry… get the cops over to this closet, get them to search the whole room. Then when they get me out of here you can hold me while I tell them what Kyle did to me. It'll be okay, sweetheart, if you can just stop crying and listen for my voice in your head._

Her arms hurt so bad from the way she was holding her head that she had to drop to the ground.

In what seemed like no time at all, and yet an eternity, J.J. heard a knock on the door, followed by a loud voice. "Police! Open up! We're comin' in!". J.J. looked up to see a tough looking officer with black hair standing over him, a gun pointed in his direction. "Step away from her!" the cop demanded.

J.J. stood up and put his hands in the air. "I-I-I found her like this. I-I tried everything I could...I c-couldn't save her." A second cop, one with grey hair, showed up. He and the black haired cop pulled J.J. out of the shower. "Paige!" J.J. cried, as he watched the black-haired cop feel for a pulse. Of course, there was no pulse to be felt. The two cops grabbed J.J. and sat him down on the bed in the dorm. J.J. was so overcome with grief that he made no effort to resist.

Paige heard one of the cops on the phone. "Suspect's name is Deveraux… Jack Junior. I have his ID here. No blanket on the bed but it's not on the victim either, dunno what his plan was but his prints are on the murder weapon and it's obvious he's only pretending to grieve. Figures he has a record. Okay. We got him on the bed, should we cuff him?"

 _No you idiots!_ she thought. She struggled again to free herself, managing to make a whistling sound through her nose as she fought against the gag in her mouth. The cops got quiet and for a second she thought they were coming this way because she heard footsteps but then she just heard one of the cops say to JJ, "All right, Deveraux. We're gonna leave the cuffs off for now but you'd better start talking, and if I were you I'd let us search you too."

"Whatever." JJ's voice was flat. "I'd never hurt her, I got nothing to hide. Besides, what difference does it make? She's gone."

 _No I'm not,_ Paige thought. _I'm right here. Come on, JJ, where's your sarcasm when we need it most? Tell them to go ahead and search the entire room, damn it, so they can find me!_ But JJ said no such thing and the low whistle she was able to get out of her nose despite the gag in her mouth was lost in the cop ordering JJ to stand up and put his hands against the wall next to the bed so he could be patted down.

"He's clean," the cop said as Paige pulled hard against the tape but got nowhere. "Get back on the bed, Deveraux, and tell us - "

Paige heard the door open again. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying that whoever was here now would somehow figure out to open the closet.

The next thing J.J. knew, Roman and Rafe had entered the room. He looked up as he heard Roman call his name and put a hand on his shoulder. "You know him?" the black-haired cop said. It wasn't a question so much as a demand. "Yeah," replied Roman. "Where's the medical examiner?". "On his way, replied the cop. Roman walked into the bathroom to check out the situation. All J.J. could do was sit there on the bed. He gave orders to the grey-haired cop, but J.J. was too upset to hear them. Rafe asked if he was okay. "He claims he found the body," sneered the cop with black hair. "I pulled his rap-sheet-"

"Not now!" Roman firmly said. Rafe got down to J.J.'s eye level. "Can you tell us what happened?" he asked gently. J.J. shook his head, reliving the events from earlier in the day. "Paige called me," J.J. said between breaths. "She said she wanted to meet. Said..said she had something to tell me."

 _Good boy,_ Paige thought. _Now, tell them how I sounded weird, how you just knew something was wrong, you thought maybe someone was holding me at gunpoint._

But JJ did no such thing. Instead, his voice broke more with each word. "And when I got here, she was...she was...". He couldn't bring himself to say any more. "Just take a deep breath," Rafe said, trying to comfort him.

J.J. put his hands up. "I swear, I didn't do this." he said, voice still shaking. "I would never hurt her.". Roman put a hand on J.J.'s back. "We know," he said. Rafe excused himself so that he could check out the scene in the bathroom. More conversation happened, but J.J. couldn't make it out. Something about covering Paige up with a blanket.

 _Yes!_ Paige thought, rocking back and forth in the limited way she could with her hands and feet taped to each other. _That's right, Rafe, Kyle covered me with a blanket so you wouldn't know I was here. Come look in the closet and find me._

Roman sat down next to J.J. "J.J.," he said, "you said Paige was seeing Kyle Southern. Do you have any information that would lead you to believe that he was behind this?". J.J. shook his head. "Think about it, okay? And if you come up with anything, anybody who may have wanted to hurt Paige, you let me know.". Roman squeezed his shoulder, and then went into the bathroom to have a conversation with Rafe.

Paige collapsed on the floor, her shoulders shaking. She couldn't even cry properly with the gag in her mouth, couldn't even make a sound so that they knew that they had been so close to rescuing her and had turned the other way. Why weren't her telepathic messages working? Why wasn't JJ getting weird gut feelings telling him that she was still alive, that Kyle had been behind that phone call luring him here, that Kyle had obviously framed him for a murder that hadn't even happened? JJ always knew when she was near him, from that first day they met. But now when it was so important he seemed to have no clue and she didn't understand why.

When they came back, Rafe handed a small baggie to one of his fellow officers. "A flower petal?". Now, J.J. had found his voice. "Seriously? That's your big clue?". Roman gave J.J. a look, which he ignored. He stood up. "Someone came in here and murdered her! And you're just standing around and waiting! For what? You need to go out and get the bastard that did this!". Roman put a hand on J.J.'s shoulder. "Hey!", Roman said sternly, "I know this is hard, J.J., but you gotta stay focused and in control.".

J.J. broke down again. Roman turned to the black-haired cop and told him to get J.J.'s statement down at the station. The cop took him out of the room. But he didn't take him to the station. Instead, once they got out to the hallway, J.J. turned to look back at the room. He saw the form of the cop slowly change and distort into another figure. Gone was the police uniform, replaced by long, black robes. The cop's face had changed, too. He looked more like André than anything. He had finally revealed himself. This was no cop. This was the Black Guardian.

"You're coming with me," he sneered. The last thing J.J. saw was a bizarre golden wave of light...then he was out cold.

Roman frowned at Rafe. Something felt wrong about this room. "Think we should do a full search?"

Rafe shook his head. "Come back later to do that. Right now I wanna check on JJ while we're waiting for the lab to get back to us. Poor kid's beside himself with grief, and you know how overeager some of the uniforms are. Last thing he needs is someone trying to force a confession out of him on top of losing Paige."

Roman and Rafe left, closing the door behind them. The second uniformed cop came out from behind the bathroom door as soon as they were gone. He reached up and began peeling off the mask covering his face.

It got quiet in the room and Paige knew the cops were gone, along with any hope she'd ever get free. JJ was probably in jail by now, too. She lay on the floor, continuing to sob silently, tasting the cloth in her mouth and feeling sick.

There was a sudden hissing noise, like the radiator coming on, except it was late summer and there was no reason for the heat to come up.

The smell of cinnamon buns wafted up to Paige's nose. She stopped crying as she breathed in the scent. It made her lightheaded and weirdly calm and happy despite knowing in the back of her mind that she was lying bound and gagged on the floor of her closet and soon she was going to die.

A memory popped into her head suddenly, a nice one, as she breathed in another deep breath full of cinnamon bun scent.

 _Grandma Kim took a tray of hot cinnamon buns out of the oven and put one on a plate for four-year-old Paige._ " _You like that, huh?" Kim said as she poured the milk. "Someday when you're big I'll teach you how to make these just like Great Grandma Caroline taught me."_

Paige's head drooped and her eyes started to close. _No,_ she thought, forcing her head up and her eyes open. _Stay awake. God knows what he'll do to you if you pass out._

She felt a hand on her back, petting her, comforting her...

 _JJ squatted down next to her and said, softly, "You need to sleep, Paige. We've been through too damn much and you gotta keep your strength up, okay?"_

" _JJ?" Paige mumbled, and was relieved that she was no longer gagged. "But you're in jail. How…"_

" _Ssh… that was just a bad dream. It sucks having a nightmare on your birthday. I know. But that's all behind us now." JJ kissed her softly as Paige opened her eyes to realize she was lying in their huge, soft bed in their bedroom at home and that she was free. "The kids wanna say happy birthday but not til you wake up. First I wanna hold you while you sleep."_

" _Sleep," Paige repeated, so exhausted that her speech was almost incoherent. "Right. Okay." She snuggled against JJ. "Love you."_

A gloved hand caressed Paige's cheek but she didn't stir. "Out cold already," the man squatted next to her said, his Australian accent distorted slightly by the mask he wore to protect himself from the sedative being pumped into the room. "Pathetic. Don't worry though. We will make you strong again, immune to the influences of such base emotions as puppy love and groundless optimism." He picked Paige up and tossed her over his shoulder. Her head flopped forward and the gag fell from her mouth as he stood. He kicked it away and said, "To be free you must be reborn. Let the Phoenix again rise from the ashes!" He chuckled to himself as he flicked a lighter, burning away the tape around Paige's wrists. Her arms flopped down and he adjusted them, making her hug him as he carried her out of the room, kicking the door closed behind him with his foot.

As soon as they were gone, the blanket in the closet burst into flames.

The flames licked at all the clothes in the closet, then at the closet walls. As the closet began to burn down, the fire spread to the rest of the room, devouring the bed before moving onto the blinds covering the window and the door to the bathroom. The room began to fill with smoke as the fire continued to spread.


	3. Chapter 3 - Torchwood

_Torchwood - Outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, and arming the human race against the future._

 _But what kind of future is there for a man who has lost his one true love?_

Jack was in his office with the door closed, as usual, leaving the team to its own devices. Gwen glanced at the door, sighing, then looked back at the computer.

"You're at your most beautiful when you're in a staredown with one of those infernal machines," Rhys commented, kissing the back of her neck and taking her by surprise.

"Not now, Rhys," Gwen snapped, then felt bad about it because she knew without turning around that her husband's face had crumpled. "Sorry. I could do with a little help around here. In case you haven't noticed, we're short… well, pretty much everybody, and whilst Jack is busy having yet another lie-in, the responsibility all falls on my shoulders."

Rhys put his hand on Gwen's shoulder. "Lemme have a crack at it, Gwennie."

"At which?" Gwen squinted. "The Recliklithium levels being off the charts around Cardiff Bay or the interpolation coordinates on the Rift Activity Monitoring System?"

Rhys laughed. "That's a good one." His smile faded. "You're not pulling my leg now, are you? I could do with a translation."

"Right. Basically Jack's been giving us things just to keep us busy and out of his hair whilst he does whatever it is that lately takes precedence over preserving human life as we know it. One of them is monitoring areas not generally known for fluctuations in energy for unusual activity."

"The idea being that you won't find anything so you'll look busy and he doesn't get bothered."

"Precisely. Except that if you take a look here - " Gwen pointed at the monitor with a manicured finger - " the line goes off the chart. So now the question is, which of us is willing to risk Jack's wrath by alerting him to the fact that his attempt to waste our time has resulted in something important?"

"That would be you," Rhys said. "Or we could leave it to that pretty young replacement for Owen Harper, eh?"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll do it."

She got up and knocked softly on Jack's office door. When she got no answer, she put her hand on the knob and turned it a crack, then stuck her head in.

Jack was staring at a cube in his hands. It was hard to tell if he was awake or asleep.

"Jack?" Gwen said softly. He didn't answer. "JACK!"

Jack jerked up. "Sorry. It's easy to get lost in time with this thing. Novelty item. Time cube full of moving pictures, makes you feel like you're right there. The technology is primitive, really, nothing more than a movie you can hold in your hand, even if it is made of your personal memories."

"And which of yours were you viewing?" Gwen's voice was soft.

Jack said nothing for a moment. Then he said, "Nothing exciting. When you've lived as long as I have, going through your memories is more or less the equivalent of watching paint dry. No surprises."

"You want to be surprised, do you?"

"That's impossible given the finite number of things in the universe. But go ahead. Prove me wrong and surprise me." Jack's eyes twinkled and for a second he seemed like his old self. Then he rubbed the bridge of his nose and the light went out of his eyes again. "Seriously, whatcha got?"

"Only the biggest energy spike we're capable of picking up, down at Cardiff Bay where there's no rift activity to speak of."

"Oh. Okay." Jack's voice was flat.

Gwen deepened her voice, doing her best to imitate Jack's American accent and pattern of speech. "This is big, unfathomably big. Last time the readings were this high was when that swarm of Aruotactian Hive Orks fell through from the 72nd Century. Better assemble a team and get out to see it straight away."

Not even a hint of a smile. Jack glanced down at his time cube. "Aruotactian Hive Orks? Really, Gwen?"

"Should we get on it or not?"

"Yeah, if you want. Report back in a few hours. I'll stay here and…" But Jack didn't say what he'd do. Gwen stared at him, her eyes full of compassion. He ignored her until she gave up and walked away.

A flash of light, and the Black Guardian landed in the bay area of a large Welsh city. J.J. had landed face down on the ground, unconscious from the Black Guardian's attack on him earlier. The culmination of all chaos and darkness surveyed the area. He chuckled to himself.

"Cardiff," he sniggered. "What a depressing place this is. There is sure to be nothing here of any use to you.". He looked down at J.J. and smiled. "Jack Deveraux, Jr, you have no idea the plans that I have for you."

The Black Guardian knelt down and rubbed J.J.'s back malevolently. "You will never see your friends in Salem again. Of course, why would you? They are all just as worthless as the next one. None moreso than you. However, I plans for you, my little friend. You will assist me in the ultimate destruction of the universe! All shall bow down before me. Particularly those infernally boring cretans, the-"

Before the Black Guardian could finish his thought, he heard the sound of tires squealing. A black SUV made a sharp turn around the corner. He fumed as it drew closer. "Another time, I think. I'll come back for you, Jack Junior, just you wait," and with that, the Black Guardian vanished.

The SUV came to a stop. Gwen ran out, followed by a young female doctor with, as Jack once described it, the voice of a nightingale: Martha Jones. They ran up to J.J.'s body.

"What've we got?", asked Gwen as Martha pulled out a scanning device.

"He's alive, but barely," Martha said, looking over the results from the scanner. "That's odd. Traces of dark matter in his bloodstream."

"Dark matter?" said Gwen. "Isn't that impossible? When matter and dark matter combine, it causes an explosion."

"No, that's anti-matter," replied Martha, still looking over the scans. "Dark matter is different. It's not the absence of matter, it's matter that's been corrupted by dark forces. Last time I saw this was…". Martha trailed off.

Gwen blinked. "Was when?"

"That was a long time ago," Martha said, looking from the scanner to J.J. "Before I joined you lot. Nearly a decade ago."

"So, you have seen this before?" questioned Gwen.

Martha knelt back down to do a secondary scan. "Dark matter, yes. But not in these quantities. Gwen, these readings are unlike anything I've ever seen before. There's no way that any normal human could contain this much dark matter without interference from outside forces."

"Is he dangerous?"

"Potentially," said Martha. "Only one way to find out. Take him back to the Hub and put him in a cell. I'll be able to better examine him there, anyway."

"Oh, Jack is gonna love this," sighed Gwen. She and Martha picked up J.J.'s body and put him in the back of the SUV. Then, they got in and drove off.

In a dimly lit room, Paige lay on the bed, still knocked out from the gas. She was no longer bound and gagged. Rather, her hands and legs were chained to a bed, and a blindfold had been placed over her eyes. A hand pushed a lock of hair away from Paige's face, and proceeded to put a gas mask over her nose and mouth. A blue gas emanated from the mask, making it the only thing that Paige could breathe.

"Sweet dreams, Miss Larsen," whispered a man with a heavy German accent.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Cell

The gas filled Paige's mask. Her head tilted downward, slightly. At first, the two men in the room thought that she was resisting. But, they soon realized it was only a spasm.

When Paige came to, she had no idea where she was. It took a moment for her to get a handle on her surroundings.

"Whoa," she said. She got up and looked around. She soon realized that she was in a jail cell. "What am I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here!"

She went up to the bars of her cell and tried to rattle them. "Hey!" she shouted. "Hey! Let me out of here! Whatever it is you think I did, I'm innocent! Please! Please, you've gotta let me out of here! I'm innocent!"

The warden of the prison walked over to the cell. He got out his night stick and tapped on the bars. "Quiet!" he demanded. Paige flinched back. The warden took his glasses off to reveal the face of André DiMera. Of course, having not met André before, Paige didn't know this.

"Please," she said. "I'm sorry for making so much noise, I-"

"I said quiet," replied the warden. "No noise from murdering scum like you."

Paige gulped as André looked her up and down. "Me? A murderer?"

"Oh yes," smirked the warden. "Caught red-handed, as it were."

"But-" gulped Paige, "but, that's impossible. I-I wouldn't hurt a fly. Ask anyone. Talk to J.J. He knows me. He'll tell you!"

"I'm afraid that's just not possible," said the warden, shaking his head.

"Why not?"

"J.J. Deveraux is the man that you've killed." André said with a grin.

Paige shook. "No," she whispered. No, that can't be true. Not J.J. I could never have-"

"Oh, but you did," the warden said. He leaned in closer so that only Paige could hear. "You murdered J.J. Deveraux in cold blood.". This was having the desired effect. Paige looked very confused, and she was shaking. "It's not surprising. It was a crime of passion, after all."

Paige looked up. "What do you mean?"

André smirked. "Well, when you found out what he did, you just went insane. Of course, I don't blame you. Anyone would. To find out that your ex-boyfriend slept with your own mother on numerous occasions. Well, that is something that would turn even the most sane person mad."

"That-that's not true," stammered Paige. "That's a lie! J.J. told me what happened, and there's no way that he would ever willingly-". But then, she could see it. As clear as day, she could see it.

 _J.J. and her mother in bed together. J.J. making rough, sweet hardcore love to her mother. And her mother begging for more. Over and over again._

" _She can never know about this," J.J. whispered to Eve. "You know that."_

" _Of course," Eve nodded. "Who'd ever believe me, anyway?"_

" _Exactly," smiled J.J._

Paige's face crumpled.

"Oh, don't be sad," cooed André. You got him back in the end."

"H-how?" whispered Paige.

"You invited him over to your college dorm room."

 _Paige was on the phone._

" _I need to see you," she said. "It's important."_

"You said you had something to tell him. Naturally, wanting to keep up the pretense of loving boyfriend, he showed up." Once he arrived, you knocked him out.

 _J.J. walked in._

" _Hey," he smiled. Paige smiled back then hit him over the head with a nearby lamp._

"You stripped him down to his boxers and chained him to the bed."

Paige looked up at the warden.

"And," she said.

"You had asked advice from one of the greatest men of all time, Stefano DiMera, on how to get rid of your enemies," the warden continued. "In an exchange for a few favors, Stefano gave you a highly precious case of lipstick."

 _Paige put on the lipstick._

" _It's even in my shade" she smiled._

"Lipstick," enquired Paige. "What good would lipstick do?"

"This lipstick," André said, "contained a toxin so deadly that one kiss from it is enough to stop a person's heart instantly.

 _J.J. had come to. He looked around._

" _Paige, what the hell-"_

 _He was cut off as Paige kissed him. He gasped for air, but quickly died._

"Of course, the wearer isn't affected by it, only the one the wearer kisses. So, you did. However, you're a smart girl. You didn't trust Stefano. Your mother had always told you never to trust a DiMera. So, just in case, you went into your purse and pulled out a red necktie."

"A red necktie?"

"Oh, yes," smiled André. And just to make sure his death happened, you tied it around his neck and choked what little life remained in him."

" _You son of a bitch" Paige yelled, as she wrapped the tie around J.J.'s neck and pulled it tight._

"Then, of course, there was the fire."

 _Paige took a lighter out of her pocket._

" _Go to hell," she whispered._

 _She lit it up and threw the lighter onto the bed. She ran out just as the sheets caught fire. On her way out, she was stopped by the police._

" _Freeze!" Shouted Rafe. "You're under arrest for the murder of J.J. Deveraux!"_

"He was almost in recognizable" André finished, "When they finally found him. Only his dental records could prove who he really was."

Paige let out a sob, not wanting to believe it, but realizing that it must be true.

"Don't worry," said André as he turned to leave. "You'll have your day in court soon enough".

Back in reality, André stood over Paige's body, which was still chained to the bed.

"Is she ready?" he asked.

Dr. Wilhelm Rolf stepped out from the shadows. "Ready and waiting," he replied.

When they got to Torchwood, Martha ran the scanner over the boy. "He's closer to alive than he was," she said. "He may awaken before we get him into the tombs."

Gwen glanced down. The boy's eyes were open but glazed over. She was sure he saw nothing, yet she could see deep pain in them, deep sadness. He looked so young, younger than she had been when she first became a cop, younger than Rhys had been when they met. "You're only a child, aren't you?" she asked softly. "What is that's been done to you?" But there was no life in the boy's eyes and he didn't reply.

Martha frowned. "Here, Gwen," she said, opening the glove box and taking out what looked like a set of plastic handcuffs with a timer display in the center. "As a precaution we need to timelock him in case he wakes up before we get him into a cell."

Gwen's eyes narrowed. "Is it really necessary to even lock him up, treat him like a rabid dog that has to be contained for everyone's protection? Can't we just bring him to the exam room and extract blood samples or whatever it is that's needed to combat the dark matter within him? "

"Gwen!" Martha said. "The scanner doesn't lie, and it's still reading abnormally high dark matter. Your caring for him has caused you to treat him like an innocent child rather than a potentially dangerous carrier of an alien infection." Gwen frowned and Martha said, "Please, Gwen, it's only for a few minutes until we get him safely in the tombs. Once he's there you can visit as much as you like with the glass between you, help him to feel safe before I examine him."

"No!" Gwen said. "You want him to remain a human being, then bloody treat him like one."

Martha glanced at Rhys. "Is she always this impossible?"

"No one has a bigger heart than my Gwennie," Rhys said uncertainly.

"Fat lot of help, this one," Martha said. "I suppose we'll have to radio Jack."

"He's not going to say anything except to do what we think best," Gwen sighed. "That one might as well not be here at all, the amount of leading he's doing lately."

"Tell me about it. I may need to check him for dark matter as well if he doesn't snap back to himself soon." Martha again picked up the timelocks. "Which of us shall do it?"

"I haven't a choice, then?" Gwen snapped. Martha shook her head and Gwen said, "All right, give me half a second with him first."

Gwen smoothed the boy's hair back. "I don't know if you can hear me. Perhaps for your sake it's best you cannot, because everything that's about to happen to you must be as confusing and frightening as whatever it is that got you into this state. But here goes. You have a sort of… an infection. We don't know what it does exactly, and that's the problem. It could make you lose control. We've seen that before, plenty of times. Someday when we're past all this, I'll tell you stories. Anyway, the thing is, the safest course of action is to minimize your ability to do harm until we know what we're dealing with. This won't hurt a bit, I promise." She held out her hands for the timelocks. Pressing the button to open them, she said, "Don't be frightened now. I'm putting it on the lowest setting. This is meant to keep all of us safe, especially you." She bit her lip, wondering if she should tell the comatose boy in her lap that if he struggled the timelocks would automatically give him a low electric shock, just enough to paralyze his arms for 30 seconds so that other measures could be taken. She shook her head, deciding it was best not to. With tears in her eyes, she said, "Right then, up you go." She pulled him to a sitting position and hugged him against her, gently. The boy made a soft sound as if he were in pain. "Ssh," she said, running her fingers through his hair. Then she carefully pulled his arms behind his back and put the timelocks around his wrists. "Five minutes is enough to get him to the tombs, yeah?" she asked, and Martha nodded. Gwen set the timer and the cuffs locked into place.

Martha helped Gwen walk the boy through the Hub, down to the tombs. His legs moved, though his eyes were still blank and his mouth hung halfway open, like he had been hypnotized. Martha slid open a glass door and they walked him inside. Gwen stood watching, tears in her eyes, as Martha sat him down against the wall. "Come on," she said.

Gwen followed Martha out. Martha slid the glass door closed, locking the boy in the cell. Then she pressed a remote against the glass. The timelocks fell off him and made themselves flat and slim so they could slide under the glass. She picked them up and removed the remote from the glass. The glass door settled down until it met the floor and the timelocks grew in her hands until they were three-dimensional again.

Gwen stood staring at the boy for a while longer. His head drooped forward and she knew he was still unconscious.

Rhys put his hand on Gwen's shoulder. "We should let the doctor take care of him, yeah?"

Gwen nodded.

"Hey," Rhys said. "You did good, Gwennie. You did real good."

"I hope so," Gwen said, leaning against Rhys unhappily. He put his arm around her and they walked off.


	5. Chapter 5 - JJ Awakens

JJ awoke with a start, his eyes jerking open. He was sitting against a wall behind a clear glass partition. His head ached slightly and he felt sick.

"How much did I drink after - " JJ mumbled, but cut himself off. Something burned deep inside him and he couldn't allow himself to even think about Paige being dead because the pain would kill him if he did.

He looked around, realizing he was in some sort of jail cell. He squinted, trying to remember what had happened, but he couldn't quite get it. All he saw in his head was a distorted image of him walking into Paige's room, calling her name, his voice so slurred it was barely comprehensible. Then the room spun wildly as a bunch of cops burst in, their guns drawn.

His head ached worse as he tried to remember what happened next. He couldn't see it clearly, at all. His hands were up against the wall by the bed and a cop's knee was in his back, pressing him tight against the wall. He was swaying, barely able to stand, mumbling something under his breath as he was patted down and his pockets turned inside 'd found something on him, something he shouldn't have, but he couldn't remember what it was. In his mind, he saw a fuzzy picture of his hands being pulled behind his back and cuffed and a cop sneering and saying, "You're coming with me," like he was gloating that he'd finally caught JJ.

JJ blinked hard. His eyes burned and tears threatened to fall. "Oh God," he said aloud. "It's gonna break Mom's heart when she finds out. How could I have been so stupid?" He buried his face in his hands.

Martha was, just then, showing Gwen some readings on the computer. "As you can see, this is normal rift activity. And this - " she pointed to the energy readings she'd taken from the prisoner - "is the amount of dark matter the boy has been infected with. And I do mean infected."

"How do you reckon?" Gwen asked.

Martha sighed. "Time for a history lesson. Long before I ran across you lot, a friend and I discovered an entity that for lack of a better term is dubbed the Black Guardian. The Black Guardian is one of the two guardians of the universe. Traditionally he's thought of as a person; he's a shapeshifting parasitic organism that feeds off of negative energy, but he often appears to those afflicted as a tall, robed man, clad all in black, able to speak and move about like a human being."

"A parasitic organism?" Gwen asked. "How exactly does that work?"

"The Black Guardian feeds off of negative emotions. When someone is deeply deeply distressed, he enters their bloodstream, feeds off of the negative energy and duplicates it. He's the voice in the back of your head saying you're bolloxed, the whisper in your ear that that bloke can't possibly really love you. His goal is to break down and control the victim, destroying them from the inside, leading them to harm others and eventually to destroy themselves. He chooses those who are not only despondent but also destined to contribute much to the world so that by causing them to implode, he can block the forward progress of the universe."

Gwen frowned. "And he chose a child as his host?"

"Technically, our prisoner isn't a child. He just appears that way to us. My scans show that he is approximately 21 years old, American, and thoroughly infected with dark matter."

"21 years old. As I said, a child." Gwen crossed her arms. "Now for the important bit. Can he be saved?"

"It's difficult," Martha said. "I have to do some research to find out how to evoke the antibodies to the emotional infection, commonly called the White Guardian, and in one as far gone as this one we'll have the fight of our lives on our hands."

Footsteps sounded in the hall. JJ lifted his head, slowly, to find some guy staring at him. He had to be the lead detective on the case cause he was dressed like a military guy, except he hadn't updated his uniform since World War II. Pain and fear fought for possession of JJ's face as the guy said, grinning, "I don't go for potentially murderous dark matter, except for that one time and that was the biggest mistake of my life. And you're far too young for me. But I gotta admit, you're pretty hot."

"Um, thanks, I think?" JJ's mouth was very dry and he was surprised he could talk at all. "But listen, whatever trick this is, it's not gonna work. I'm not saying a word without my lawyer, especially since I don't remember a freaking thing about last night."

Jack laughed. "Feisty, aren't you? I like it. But good luck finding a lawyer. Technically you're being unlawfully detained but nobody's gonna touch Torchwood and you'll have a hell of a time explaining how you washed up on Cardiff Bay infected with dark matter, especially since we'd have to retcon the lawyer after. Classified material and all that, you understand."

JJ stared at him. The dude was clearly crazy. Or maybe JJ was the crazy one. His head was throbbing and he wasn't sure he was understanding the guy right.

"But let's get serious," Jack said. "Look, we're not out to get you, we're out to cure you, so how about you drop the defensiveness and tell me the last thing you actually remember."

JJ bit his lip. "Paige called me and when I got to her room - " But his insides burned and he groaned involuntarily.

"And when you got to her room?" Jack asked, pretending to know who Paige was. They could work out those details later once they figured out what was going on with the kid.

JJ shook his head. "I told you, I'm not freaking talking to you without a lawyer."

"Interesting," Jack said, his voice totally calm.

JJ's eyes flashed. "Look," he said, "you got the wrong guy. I didn't do anything, all right? So leave me alone!"

"You got it." Jack walked off. "Martha," he said into his watch, "meet me in five. I have some interesting observations for you."

Alone in the cell, JJ saw Paige's lifeless body lying on the floor of her shower. A voice in his head hissed, "It's your fault, boy. It's. your. fault."

JJ whimpered. "No," he whispered. "I didn't mean to… I couldn't have…" He blinked hard as he buried his head in his hands again.

André and Rolf watched as the blue smoke from the mask continued to flow into Paige's nose and mouth.

"She will be ready soon," said Rolf. "What I do not understand is the need for the blindfold."

"She must be reborn," André replied. "In order for that to happen, she must lose everything and start over again. Complete sensory deprivation. Once she is reborn, she'll have no memory of her previous life. She will be an entirely new person."

Paige sat in her cell, making no effort to get out. She only looked up when the door opened, and André the warden walked in.

"Come," he said. "It is time for the trial."

Trillions of lightyears away, there is a place where time and space has no meaning. Where an eternity can vanish within seconds. It is here that the Black Guardian sits and watches. He gazed into a crystal ball, watching J.J. as his despair grew. He chuckled to himself. "Now," he whispered. "You know in your heart that this is all your fault."

A light came amongst the darkness. It was small at first, but soon grew. It took the form of a man. He, too, wore flowing robes, although his were a brilliant white. The purest white imaginable. Though the Guardians are beyond the concept of aging, the white one had features of a younger man. He shook his head as he set his eyes upon his brother.

"Why do you do this?" he asked. "No good can come of it. Surely even you know that."

"That is entirely the point," said the Black Guardian as he turned to face his brother. "Chaos. Darkness. Everything that makes me the complete opposite of you."

"Why this interference?" the White Guardian wondered. "I am well aware that the laws of the universe say that we must both exist, but you are constantly trying to offset the balance. We are Guardians. We supposed to keep that balance in sync. The light and the dark, they are one, or rather they should be. One cannot be more prevalent than the other. Otherwise the whole of the cosmos is thrown into disaster."

"My kind of world," the black one sneered.

The White Guardian sighed. "Brother, you must stop this foolishness. You are aware, of course, that this is the sort of frivolous meddling that has led to your downfall in the past. This is the sort of thing that attracts...him."

The Black Guardian sniggered. "Him. You say that as if I should be frightened. He is a mere insect compared to us! Besides, he shall not be able to interfere in our affairs this time. He is far too busy with his war. I have seen to that."

"Nevertheless," said the White Guardian as he turned away, "the laws of reality dictate that we must be in balance. That balance shall be restored, one way or another."

The White Guardian returned to a small spark. He had not left at all, for wherever the Black Guardian goes, so must he. He was merely lying dormant, biding his time until he found a way to restore the balance.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Trial

André and Rolf continued to watch as Paige succumbed further to the effects of the gas.

"She is becoming responsive to the treatment," commented Rolf.

André nodded. He noticed that Paige was shivering slightly, and was making a whimpering noise, almost similar to crying. He walked over to her and put a hand through her hair in what most people would consider a calming way.

"It's all right, Ludovica," he cooed. "Don't be sad. It's just a dream. Soon, very soon, daddy will make it all better."

André walked Paige into the courtroom. She was dressed in the same orange jumpsuit she had been while she was in the cell. Handcuffs were around her wrists. The courtroom was big and empty. Not very many had come to see her fate. André walked her up to her seat. An elderly man with an obviously false moustache and toupee stood and bowed to greet her. Were it not for the hair on the top of his head and face, he would have looked like Dr. Rolf. But, of course, he couldn't be.

"Are the handcuffs really necessary," the man enquired in a generic, non-regional American accent.

The warden nodded. "She is a wanted criminal. One who is noted as being a potential danger to herself as well as others.". He shoved Paige into the seat. "Sit there and be quiet unless you're spoken to, girl.".

Paige nodded. André walked away. Paige looked at the man sitting next to her.

"Y-you're my lawyer?" she asked.

The man nodded. "Professor W. R. Putnam, Attorney at Law. You hired me the morning before the incident. Don't worry, I've got it all covered."

Putnam was going to say more, but was interrupted by the bang of the judge's gavel. Paige looked up to see André sitting at the judge's bench.

"This court shall come to order," he said. "Case of Salem v. Paige Larson. Prosecution, you may proceed."

Paige looked on as Dr. Rolf stood up. "Thank you, your honor," he said. "Gentlemen of the jury, there is no doubt that my client is guilty. We have her confession on tape. She has, in fact, pled guilty. But to plead temporary insanity? That is a big stretch of the truth. Within this trial, I will show that the murder of one Jack Deveraux, Jr. was not only in her mind, but that it was meticulously calculated down to the very last moment. I shall also prove that Miss Larson was, indeed, in her right mind when she formed and executed these plans."

Rolf sat. André turned to look at Putnam. "Anything to say?" he asked.

Professor Putnam stood. "Only what I have been saying for the last few days. While the prosecution is correct, and there is not a shadow of a doubt that Paige Larson is guilty of murder, it was not as well thought out as my worthy opponent would have you believe. J.J. Deveraux's murder was not planned. It was a spur of the moment event, brought on by intense feelings of love and betrayal. I intend to prove that while my client may be guilty, she cannot be held entirely accountable for her actions, as she was not in her right mind at the time of the murder."

Putnam sat down. "Prosecution," said André, "call your first witness."

Rolf called Stefano DiMera to the stand. Stefano, a man larger than life itself. A finely dressed Italian man, clearly accustomed to enjoying the best of what life had to offer. He made his way to the stand and after swearing on the Bible to tell the whole truth, sat down.

"Mr. DiMera," began Rolf, "what is your relationship to the accused?"

"None," Stefano said. "Apart from having met with her on one occasion."

"What is your relationship to the victim?"

"Again, none," Stefano said. "I wanted nothing to do with the boy."

"I see," said Rolf. "You say that you have met with Miss Larson on one occasion. Could you describe that for us?"

Stefano nodded. "It was the morning of the 8th of September. I was enjoying a nice Merlot when one of my assistants ushered Miss Larson into my main room. I was, of course, surprised to see her. I had had nothing to do with her life before, nor did she with me. What she said to me that morning, I will never forget it…"

" _I hear you do favors," Paige said, looking at Stefano as he sat at his chess board._

" _I do," he replied, taking a sip of his drink. "For a price."_

" _I'll give you anything you want," she said._

" _Anything," Stefano chuckled. "And what exactly is it that a young lady like you could offer me, hm?"_

" _I can offer you information. Information about the Brady and Horton family. I know you have a-a disagreement with them. I can give you insider info on them."_

" _Hm," Stefano said, as he nodded. "And what do you wish in return?"_

" _I want to kill J.J. Deveraux," said Paige in a grave voice._

 _Stefano chuckled. "J.J. Deveraux? Of what consequence is a young man like him, eh?"_

" _He...that lying bastard slept with my mother!"_

" _Ah," exclaimed Stefano, clapping his hands together. "So, it is revenge you are after, eh?"_

 _Paige nodded. Stefano dug into his pocket, chuckling._

" _Well, I think I can help you with that, then," he said. He pulled out a tube of lipstick. "This. This tube of lipstick contains a poison that is so deadly that it will instantly kill anyone who gets kissed by it."_

" _If it's so deadly, won't that kill me?" asked Paige._

" _Not at all, my dear," replied Stefano. "The wearer is not affected, only the person the wearer kisses."_

 _Stefano handed the tube to Paige. "Now," he said, "you have some information for me?'_

"How exactly was I supposed to know what she was going to do with it?" asked Stefano. "I didn't even know if it actually worked. I got it secondhand from my daughter, Kristen. And, everything I had heard about the Larson girl led me to believe that she was a sweet thing who would not even harm a fly. I certainly did not think she was capable of murder."

"I see," said Rolf. "And that is the only time you spoke to Miss Larson?"

Stefano nodded. "Yes. The only time."

Rolf turned to Putnam. "Have you any questions?"

Putnam shook his head. Paige stared at him incredulously.

"No more questions, your honor," said Rolf.

Stefano went back to his seat. "Have you any more witnesses, prosecution?" asked André.

"None, your honor," replied Rolf.

"Very well. Defense, call your first witness."

Putnam stood up. "I call to the stand Paige Larson."

Suddenly, André the warden pulled Paige out of her seat and dragged her to the stand. Paige looked from the warden to the judge. They were the same person. Paige swore on the Bible, and was then forced into her seat.

"Miss Larson," began Professor Putnam, "could you please tell us what happened on the evening of September 7th?"

"I walked into my mother's house," she began, in an almost robotic voice. It was as if she had been programmed to say these exact words. "The door was open. I saw a leather jacket on the sofa. The same kind J.J. Deveraux wears...I mean, used to wear. I walked into the bedroom and found J.J. in bed with my mother."

"And your mother is Eve Donovan Larson?"

"Yes," continued Paige. "We had a discussion. It was short and loud. J.J. didn't even try to hide his intense feelings of love for my mother. I stormed out in tears."

"What about the evening of the 8th of September?" asked Putnam. "What happened that night?"

"I invited J.J. over to my college dorm room," began Paige, parroting what André the warden had told her earlier. "I said I had something to tell him. Naturally, wanting to keep up the pretense of loving boyfriend, he showed up. Once he arrived, I knocked him out. I stripped him down to his boxers and chained him to the bed. Earlier in the day, I had asked advice from one of the greatest men of all time, Stefano DiMera, on how to get rid of my enemies. In an exchange for a few favors, Stefano gave me a highly precious case of lipstick. This lipstick contained a toxin so deadly that one kiss from it is enough to stop a person's heart instantly. Of course, the wearer isn't affected by it, only the one the wearer kisses. So, I did. I put it on and I kissed J.J. However, I'm a smart girl. I didn't trust Stefano. My mother had always told me never to trust a DiMera. So, just in case, I went into my purse and pulled out a red necktie. And just to make sure his death happened, I tied it around his neck and choked what little life remained in him. Then, of course, there was the fire. I grabbed a lighter from my purse, lit it up, and threw it onto the bed. Then, the cops showed up. J.J. was almost in recognizable when they finally found him. Only his dental records could prove who he really was. The police took me into custody and I confessed to J.J. Deveraux's murder."

"I see," said Putnam. He turned to Rolf. "Any questions?"

Rolf stood. "Miss Larson," he began. "You have just admitted before a court of law that you went to the home of Mr. Stefano DiMera with the express intent of having him give you a weapon to use on J.J. Deveraux to kill him. Are those not your own words?"

"Yes," replied Paige, flatly.

"Therefore, would this not be premeditated murder?"

Paige hesitated. "I-I guess it would."

Rolf turned to the judge. "No more questions."

"What of you, defense," asked André. "Have you any more witnesses?"

"None, your honor," said Putnam.

Paige was escorted back to her seat by André the warden. André the judge banged his gavel.

"Very well," he said. If there are no more questions, then the jury may go into deliberation."

"No need, your honor," said the jury foreman. Paige turned to see a line of twelve identical men. Each one looked like André. "The situation is very clear for all to see. This woman is guilty of the well thought out murder of Jack Deveraux, Jr."

André the judge nodded. "And her sentence?"

Paige stood. "Wait," she said. "Before you say anything, I need to say one thing." She began to break down. "I-I know I did this. And yes, I planned it. But-but I've had time to think and...I can't live with myself. Every day, I have to wake up and face the fact that I killed J.J. And that-that is worse than any punishment you could give me." Tears formed in her eyes. "Please, don't just throw the book at me. Put me to death! Stone me! Give me the chair! I don't deserve to live!" She collapsed into a weeping mess.

André the judge smiled. "Yes. You shall be put to death."

"Yes," smiled André as he whispered into Paige's ear. "You shall be put to death. But, you shall be reborn, like a phoenix from the ashes."

André smoothed back some of Paige's hair. She was crying.

"Ssh," he whispered. "Don't be sad, Ludovica. Daddy will make this all better. Soon, you'll wake up and this will all have been a horrible dream."

André stood. "Rolf, if you would be so kind as to do the honors."

Dr. Rolf nodded, and pulled a switch. Two spikes came down and inserted themselves into Paige's head.


	7. Chapter 7 - JJ's Examination

"Have you found out anything about our guest?" Jack asked Martha while Gwen pulled up the boy's cell on the CCTV so that she could keep an eye on him during the meeting. "Like, I don't know, perhaps a name, for starters."

Martha shook her head. "I could probably extract an identity from his DNA once I do a full examination, but even that's not a guarantee. What's left of this equipment is, to be blunt, not quite as good as it might be. Our DNA sampler is outdated even by early 21st century standards."

"She did find that he's not much more than a lad," Gwen interrupted as she adjusted a dial. "Approximately 21 years old, I think was the determination." She frowned. "At times like this I miss Tosh. She had a way with computers, that one, that I just can't duplicate."

"Right," Jack said. "How about we leave the critique of the facilities for another time and stick to what we do know. I couldn't get much out of him either. He seems to be suffering from the delusion that he's stuck in a bad American crime drama film and that yours truly is the stereotypical rogue cop who will stop at nothing to get the answers he wants."

"He's not far off the mark," Gwen said flatly.

Jack ignored that. "There's a blank spot in his memory; he doesn't have any idea what happened to him between arriving at the residence of a girl called Paige and awakening in the tombs. His movements are slowed down, he has headache and he appears to be ill."

"Sounds like he had one too many with the boys last night," Rhys commented.

"Precisely. Except that going out drinking doesn't generally result in being infected with dark matter. Martha, when you do your examination, I want you to search for evidence of drug and alcohol use. The odds are we won't find any. Either way it'll help us tell the story of how he became infected, and why." Jack frowned. "Something else, too. This girl Paige… whatever happened, it's causing him to shut down. I used my trademark wit and genteel manner - " - Martha and Gwen both raised their eyebrows at him - "Well, my wit anyway. The point is, I was able to get him talking but as soon as I began probing as to what exactly happened he became sullen and defensive and I was unable to get anything further out of him."

Martha nodded. "He must have been exposed to some traumatic event, paving the way for the Black Guardian to invade his being."

"Right. Memory traces would provide invaluable here. If we can see through his eyes what happened to him, we might be able to determine the purpose of the invasion. The Black Guardian wants something with him, but what?"

Martha frowned. "I'll try, but with this equipment - "

"Again with the equipment." Jack turned towards Gwen. "Gwen. I need you to prep the boy for his examination. Go down to the tombs, get him to trust you. Don't worry about getting him talking, just convince him that we're not here to hurt him further. We need his resistance to our probing as low as possible if we're going to get the information we need."

"Straight away." Gwen tilted her head up at the monitor, which she had finally got working. The boy was curled up in a ball on the floor, his shoulders shaking. "He looks like he could do with a friend anyhow." She walked off.

Martha and Jack exchanged glances. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Martha asked.

"I gave up telepathy a while ago. What are you thinking?"

"I'm concerned about Gwen's overempathy with this boy. She seems to refuse to understand that the dark matter may make him not act like himself and that he may actually be dangerous. It would be so easy for the Black Guardian to cause him to do something to her."

Jack frowned. "That's a risk we have to take. We need to gain his trust before we can neutralize the threat."

Rhys slammed his hand down onto a counter, making the computer systems shake. "I won't stand for the way you talk about my Gwen," he said. "Either of you." He turned towards Martha. "She may have a big heart but she's nobody's fool and you speak of her as if a lad from bloody America can easily pull the wool over her eyes just by shedding a few tears. And you, Captain Jack Harkness or whatever your name really is… this may all be a grand experiment to you but my Gwen is not expendable, do ya hear me? Her life matters just as much as that young one in there."

"Of course it does." Jack's voice was neutral. "I think you've misunderstood me. The Black Guardian only interferes with the lives of people who have the capacity to take amazing steps forward for all of mankind, trying to throw the universe into chaos, stop us from making progress. Gwen's clear love for a boy she's never met, a boy who for all we know belongs in the distant past or far future, just might be the key to saving the world in some way that we can't see. Her conversation with him down in the Tombs isn't trivial. It's vital. To everything."

JJ shoved his hands over his ears. "Shut up!" he shouted, then realized he was shouting at the voice in his head. He whimpered and looked up. "I'm going crazy," he whispered. "Oh God."

Footsteps sounded down the hall. _Lie down and pretend to be asleep,_ the voice in his head whispered, and he wasn't sure if he was telling himself what to do or if someone was ordering him around. Either way, he had to do it cause if the cops knew he was losing his mind, he didn't know what would happen to him. He put his head down and closed his eyes, but as soon as he did he saw himself cradling Paige's dead body and no amount of blinking made it go away.

He heard the cell door slide open but he didn't care. It didn't matter, nothing mattered. He wanted Paige but he didn't deserve her.

"You're poorly, eh?" it was a woman's voice, Welsh accent. JJ had heard it before somewhere but he couldn't quite remember.

He lifted his head slightly despite himself. The woman was pretty, with dark hair that reminded him of Paige, what she might be like when they were older with kids of their own. He blinked back tears. "You the one who arrested me?" he groaned.

"In a manner of speaking." Gwen squatted by him. "You remember, then? Us finding you facedown down by the Bay?

The Bay? Where the hell had he ended up? "I'm so sorry," he mumbled. "I mean, I… I don't remember what I did but it must have been pretty bad cause P-Paige…" His shoulders shook and he felt that same wordless pain as before.

"We didn't mind giving you a lift," Gwen told him, pretending not to know what he was really trying to say. "We just wanted to ensure you were safe, that's all." JJ shrugged and Gwen asked, "This Paige, she must be special."

JJ's face trembled but he said nothing. Gwen said, "Let's start again with a proper introduction, eh? Name's Gwen. And yours?"

"Like you don't know." JJ's eyes flashed. Gwen said nothing, just gave him a wide-eyed stare that reminded him so much of Paige he felt like he'd been punched in the chest. He looked away from her, not sure he could hold back the tears any more. "It's JJ, okay?" he said, his voice wavering.

"JJ. Now we're getting somewhere." Gwen's voice was quiet. "How about I tell you a bit about where you ended up?" JJ shrugged again. "We haven't left Cardiff," Gwen told him, "we're just deep underground in a place called Torchwood." JJ remembered the other dude had said Torchwood too but he didn't have the energy to ask what that was. "And you're not in trouble, at least not the sort you're thinking. You're in our custody, yes, but not because you deserve punishment. I used to be on the beat, I know a troublemaker when I see one and that doesn't seem to be you."

"Whatever." JJ's voice was flat.

Gwen sighed. She patted JJ's back, but that made him wince and snap, "Don't - "

"Sorry." Gwen held her hands up. "I need you to pick yourself up off that floor. I came round to take you to the infirmary, so to speak. We need to run some tests, find out what happened before you landed belly down at the Bay."

JJ's eyes widened and for a second he looked terrified. He sat up slowly. Gwen held out her hand, but he shook his head and got himself up. "You got a mirror?" he asked. "I'm sure I look horrible but…"

"The grooming's not the important thing right now," Gwen said, gently. "We want to get you well."

JJ nodded. He let Gwen take his hand and help him pull himself to his feet. Then he put his hands behind his back without being asked. "I know way too well how this works," he said in answer to her raised eyebrows.

Gwen nodded. "With any luck this will be the last time," she said, waiting til she was behind him to take out the timelocks. She was sure he'd never seen cuffs like these before and she didn't want to scare him any further.. "Our doctor'll find what's got you in this state and once we know you're not dangerous we can dispense with these, yes?" She set the cuffs and put her hand on JJ's shoulder, holding him as gently as possible as she led him out of the cell.

Martha already had the exam room set up when Gwen brought JJ in. "This is Martha Jones, the company doctor so to speak," Gwen told JJ. "And this," she said to Martha, "is JJ."

"So we have a name," Martha commented. "Excellent. Let's get him up on the table."

"He's not deaf," Gwen told her. "Do you think you can be bothered to speak directly to him?"

"Right. Sorry." Martha turned towards JJ. "We're going to get you up on the exam table and do some basic scans and blood analyses." She pressed a button to release the restraints, then took them off JJ and handed them to Gwen. "Since we're so shorthanded, think you can work the computer, Gwen? Everything I'm doing'll go right into the software. It'll chime if anything's unusual but I need a pair of eyes looking at it too."

"Right." Gwen patted JJ's shoulder. "Have a yell if you need me."

Gwen took her place at the computer and put on her headset while Martha had JJ lie down on the table. She started with the same scans as before. The computer beeped and warned of abnormally high dark matter. "What's the count?" Martha asked and Gwen told her, "3752." Martha nodded and said, "Down by 3%. It's a start."

Next, Martha took a laser and ran it over JJ's arm so that it could analyze the blood running through his veins. The computer flashed that there was a DNA match with a Jack Deveraux Junior, born September 23, 1995 in the town of Salem in the midwestern section of America. It also again registered high dark matter content. Martha pressed a button and the computer registered that the last known exposure to alcohol was in November of 2014 and the last known exposure to other drugs had been almost precisely two years earlier. Gwen repeated that to Martha, who nodded.

Glad that they were using the headsets so JJ couldn't hear, Gwen asked, "So if it isn't alcohol, what's the hangover then?"

"I'd say we're looking at an energy-based attack. His symptoms aren't chemical in the slightest."

Martha picked up a piece of flexible plastic and began to wrap it round JJ's head. He shuddered and said, "What the hell's that?"

"We need to try to find the source of your headache," Martha told him, leaving out that she was looking for memory traces. She finished putting the band around his head and pressed some buttons on it. It lit up green and the computer reported happy memory traces found and played a silent video of a six-year-old boy opening a guitar at Christmas and running happily into his father's arms. Having established this baseline, Martha programmed the band to search for other memory traces. But when she tried to search for what happened right before JJ was found unconscious, it found only half a trace. The video began to play of JJ walking into Paige's room. Then the computer chimed and a big red box appeared labeled, MEMORY CORRUPTED. Two separate videos played together over each other. One was of JJ heading towards the bathroom of the room and the other was of him staggering around drunkenly.

Suddenly, JJ doubled over. He groaned involuntarily and he heard that voice in his head again. _You caused this. You know you did._ "No," he moaned. "Please, no, stop…" He threw his hands over his ears, rocking back and forth, squeezing his eyes shut and moaning. The computer warned that his dark matter count was spiking. JJ began to sweat.

"Stop the test!" Gwen snapped. "Look what it's doing to him, Martha, we'll lose him."

Martha nodded. She pressed a button and the test stopped. JJ lay completely still, doubled over. Martha did a scan and said, "His temperature is elevated, especially around his upper back. I would guess that's the source of the infection." She put her hand in front of JJ's face but he ignored her. "JJ? Can you hear me?"

"I'm burning up," JJ mumbled.

"I know. We're going to let you have a rest, all right? Gwen'll take you back to your cell temporarily whilst I finish up some tests."

Gwen took off her headset and came to collect JJ. She could see the tears in his eyes. "It'll be all right," she said softly. "You'll have a lie down, yes?" JJ nodded, seemingly unable to speak. His arms were limp as she pulled them behind his back; he neither spoke nor resisted being cuffed in any way. Gwen wasn't sure the timelocks were at all needed but then again he might try to do something to himself whilst in this state.

"Come." Gwen put her arm around JJ. He let her lead him back to his cell.

Later, after Gwen had got JJ settled back in his cell and told him softly that he was safe and that they were going to get to the bottom of this, she rejoined Martha. Martha was frowning at the computer. "I tried to run a simulated extraction of dark matter," she said. "It's not likely to work but it's the only chance we have right now."

"And?"

"And it's doomed to failure." Martha sighed. "Here's what we know. That attack he experienced was engineered by the Black Guardian. The dual memories - that was because shortly after being exposed to whatever traumatic experience occurred in his girlfriend's bathroom, he was attacked by the parasite and his memories altered. He's essentially been, in a manner of speaking, reprogrammed to believe that he went to her room totally pissed and ended up in police custody. But as the tests show, nothing of the sort happened. It's been nearly a year since he touched alcohol."

"So can we unedit his memories, get the real ones back? Would that drive out the dark matter?"

"Yes and no. The Black Guardian clearly is controlling what he remembers. Most likely he will remember the trauma when it suits the parasite's purpose - that is, when it is most likely to destroy him. Restoring his memory would loosen the Black Guardian's hold on him, but paradoxically, if not done in a safe, controlled manner it might make the dark matter already in him spike further as he is not equipped to deal with it."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know." Martha tapped on the computer keyboard. "At the risk of incurring Jack's wrath, we need better equipment. If we had the medical facilities of a decade or even of five years ago we might be able to entice the White Guardian to make an appearance. As it is, we have limited resources, and the most limited is time. The episode he had whilst I was examining him is but a small taste of what it will look like as the darkness spreads. The poor boy is going mental, with the help of an evil influence that wants him to break down completely. I'd say we have at the most, 48 hours to save him."

Gwen glanced up at the monitor. JJ was standing with his nose pressed against the glass, breathing heavily, tears running down his face that he likely was not aware of. She shook her head, sadly.

"There's a way you haven't thought of. It might break all the rules of Time but what's a few rules when the fate of the Universe and of one young kid is at stake?" Jack said later, when Gwen and Martha filled him in. "We have all the time time in the world, really. All we have to do, is jump back a few years." He glanced at Martha. "How would you like to meet your predecessor, Dr. Owen Harper, during a time when he was fully and unquestionably alive?"


	8. Chapter 8 - Getting Ready to Travel

Martha's eyes widened. "I expect he'll be more useful than he was last time we crossed paths."

"Oh yeah." Jack grinned. "Undead was one thing, but back in the day, he was an unstoppable force." His smile faded and he said softly, "It'll be nice to see Ianto again, too."

Gwen's eyes narrowed and she said to Martha, "If you wouldn't mind giving us a minute to finalize the plans…"

"Of course," Martha said. She started towards the door, then turned. "One thing you must know," she said. "The boy's quite fragile still and during the time jump he's especially vulnerable to a second attack, especially if the ripples in the time vortex cause him anxiety."

Gwen said, "We can't leave him here by himself, locked in the tombs with no one to care for him."

"No," Martha said, "we can't. But if we take him it has to be whilst he's in a deep sleep, delta wave or higher."

Jack nodded. Martha left and he leaned back in his seat and said to Gwen, "Well?"

Gwen crossed her arms. "It's selfish, Jack," she said softly. "This time jump hasn't to do with helping save JJ from the invasion of dark matter within, does it? You just want to see Ianto."

The Black Guardian watched on through the crystal ball he held.

"Hm," he thought. "They seem to be getting a little too close to the truth. Let's just see if we can't tip the balance a bit, shall we?"

The embodiment of all evil touched the ball and whispered into it.

"You know you did it, boy," he said. "You deserve whatever punishment you get. You are worthless."

J.J. sat on the edge of the bed. Suddenly, he doubled over in pain. The voice in his head began working overtime _You're worthless, boy. You know that you deserve nothing but death._ J.J. soon realized that this pain wasn't just in his head, but in his back. It was forming a circle around the midsection of his back. And there was the voice in his head again. _The pain will stop once you've admitted it, boy. Admit that you are worthless!_ J.J. opened his eyes. The pain had lessened, but didn't fully go away.

"Wha-what the hell," J.J. thought.

Jack laughed as he leaned back in his chair. "You're so cute when you play armchair psychiatrist. No, Gwen, this time jump is about saving the world from whatever the parasite lodged deep in over half the cells in a young boy's body has planned for it. Seeing Ianto's a side benefit." He got up, turned his back to her. "It won't solve anything," he said quietly. "I'd have to limit my interaction, not mess up the timeline. I certainly can't bring him back here with us or tell him much about his fate. It's torture, really, like seeing a ghost. Or maybe I'm the ghost and always have been. Either way, it won't be the happy reunion you're envisioning so you can get down off that high horse you've climbed upon, all right?"

"I miss him too." Gwen's voice was soft. "Not in the same manner of course, but he had a cheerfulness about him."

"Yeah. He did."

Gwen said nothing for a second. Then she said, "Perhaps you're right and meeting him is just the thing to lift JJ's spirits so that he can fight off this thing for once and for all." Jack shrugged and she said, "You can't be planning to leave him in the tombs."

"Of course not. Not the 2016 era tombs, anyway. He has to come with us so Owen can take a look."

Gwen's eyes flashed. "I won't have it, Jack, you keeping him behind a glass shield, me escorting him everywhere in timelocks. I didn't leave the beat to treat an innocent child as a criminal."

"You don't know how innocent he is! He saw something in that bathroom, Gwen, something which terrified him and filled him with guilt, guilt that I know too well because the only thing that matches it is my own guilt over Tosh and Owen and Ianto and no matter what you have to say about it, we both know that all those deaths are on my hands!"

Gwen's eyes widened. "So again, it isn't about him, not one bit. Your treatment of that boy is about you punishing yourself."

"It's protocol, Gwen. Protocol! Look, we have an alien invasion on our hands, and don't think I didn't notice certain features about the host's body. You know how turned on I get by strong muscles and large hands, and our guest has both. Absent an abundance of dark matter, I'm sure you're right - he wouldn't harm you or me or any human being on this earth. But that perfectly sculpted body could do a lot of damage if it falls completely under the control of a malevolent force or two, and that is precisely what we're trying to avoid. He stays locked up for all of our safeties. Don't make me remind you what happened when Ianto let his heart take precedence over protocol that other time." His face trembled, remembering that first kiss, breathing life back into Ianto, concentrating on his love for him to make him open his eyes. Damn it, why hadn't it worked a second time, why did he only get one second chance?

"So that's it then," Gwen said quietly, bringing Jack back to the present. "We keep him locked away and in the dark about what's happening to him and what we're trying to do to help. Never mind that it must make him fearful and dampen his spirits to be locked up with no memory of what he's done nor of what we're attempting to do for him. We're making him worse and more vulnerable to further attack, don't you see that?"

Jack bit his lip. "Sometimes, Gwen, the truth is worse than the silence, and this is one of those times. You heard Martha. He's fragile. How will being told that he was attacked by a malevolent alien, transported across space and possibly across time and rescued by a secret society of alien catchers who are holding him as a matter of public safety and who want him to go to sleep so that he can be transported across time again go over, huh?"

Gwen blinked back tears. "There has to be a way to at least let him have a break from the tombs. You've been in prison, Jack, you know there's only one thing to do when you're locked in a tiny room and that's sit and think and ruminate on everything that's wrong in your life. We're making him a breeding ground for further attack and making ourselves seem like bleeding kidnappers on top of it."

"Right," Jack said. "Okay. You win, Gwen. After the time jump we'll put him under house arrest, let him wander around the Hub freely, see how that goes. But he's your responsibility. Not mine. And if something untoward happens you're going to have to immobilize him. Understood?"

"Fine." Gwen started to walk out.

"Gwen," Jack called after her. Gwen turned. He opened a drawer and handed her a plastic bracelet. "His monitor. Don't you want to find out exactly how it works before you assume responsibility for him?"

JJ was sitting on the edge of his bed, exhausted but not daring to sleep, when Gwen entered his cell. "I thought you could do with a blanket," she said.

JJ shrugged. "I'm not allowed to sleep," he said flatly. "If I do I'm gonna remember stuff that I'm better off forgetting."

"Even so," Gwen said, "you need to rest, begin to get your strength back." She put the blanket down on the bed and sat down next to JJ. "I have just the thing to lift your spirits," she said. "You're getting out of this cell for a bit soon."

JJ bit his lip. "You sure?" he asked. "You don't know what I'm capable of, okay? I… a couple years ago I lost it and I threw a chair through a glass like this and tried to fight off like, a bunch of people who tried to stop me. I was so freaking glad when you guys showed up cause I needed to be in cuffs, okay, and now I got this hole in my memory and I can't shake the feeling that I did something even worse cause Paige, she…" He swallowed hard. "I think she might be dead, okay?" he said, his voice hoarse and strained. "Sometimes when I close my eyes I see her lying on the floor with no life in her and I dunno if it's real or a freaking nightmare. And I know I didn't do that to her cause I couldn't ever, no matter what, but I can't shake the feeling that it's all my fault and if that's true I'm the last thing you wanna unleash on Cardiff or wherever the hell it is we are."

 _So that's what he saw,_ Gwen thought. She longed to tell him that she knew he'd seen something in Paige's bathroom and that it had caused him to be infected with the dark matter that was currently torturing him. But Martha had said he had to be allowed to remember slowly or it would open the pathway for even more dark matter, so she didn't dare. Instead she said, gently, "Memory's a funny thing. Jack says it's a sort of time travel in a way, that once something's past it exists only as far as it's remembered. I expect when chunks of it go missing you fill in the blanks with your worst fears. That's all it is, I'm sure. Anyway, we're going to strike the balance between freedom and not." She took a device out of her purse that looked like a bracelet, round and plastic, except it had a red dot in one place. "Do you prefer the wrist or the ankle?"

JJ frowned. "Depends what that is. You wanna fill me in?"

"Of course. This is a sort of homing device. It's got a GPS sensor and a camera in it so we can keep an eye on what you're up to for the next while. You're going to need to stay in the Hub - we can't risk you wandering off until your infection's under control - but starting to-morrow you can have some freedom during the day. I'm afraid we have to keep you locked up during sleeping hours but we'll let you work with us on finding a cure for what ails you so you don't sit here thinking these dark thoughts about what's happened to your girlfriend. So what do you say? Shall we give it a go?"

JJ hesitated. _What happens if I go nuts like I did at the bookstore?_ he thought, but he didn't wanna ask cause it made it feel too real. He rolled up the leg of his jeans."You gonna be watching me in here with that thing?"

Gwen nodded. "Not as closely but it's connected 24 hours a day." She opened the bracelet and placed it around JJ's ankle. It changed color and size, becoming invisible to the untrained eye and allowing him to put his jeans leg back down over it. Gwen made a mental note to get him a change of clothes for the morning. He'd been in these since they found him and she knew that in standard, non-alien cases of depression, wearing used clothes contributed to the problem.

"There," Gwen said. She stood. "Try to get some sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow." She hesitated, wanting to tell him about their travel plans and wondering again if she should be keeping so much secret from him. In his fragile state, he didn't need to struggle to understand things that seemed strange and impossible to him, yet not knowing what was happening might be adding to his terror. In the end, she said nothing, just peeled back the blanket for him to make it clear what was expected of him.

JJ reddened. He was way too old to be tucked in and if he was at home there was no way in hell he'd let his mom do anything like that. "I got it," he said. "Thanks." He lay down underneath the blanket even though he didn't think he could sleep. Gwen wished him a good night and got ready to leave.

"Gwen?" JJ asked. She turned and he said, "Do you know what happened to me? I was just thinking, um, if you can tell me it'd help."

"I wish I did." Gwen's voice was soft.

JJ nodded. "Um, there's something you should know, I guess." Gwen frowned but she gave him the benefit of the doubt, turning back towards him despite her fear that he was trying to put off sleep. He said, "I dunno how to say this, um, and maybe I shouldn't." He felt a twinge of pain in his back that he was sure was a warning, but he ignored it. "You ever have a voice in your head that feels like it's not yours?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"You're hearing voices, is that it?" Gwen asked.

JJ nodded, his eyes wide with fear. "I've been going crazy like, ever since I got here," he said. "That's kinda why I'm not sure this is a good idea cause lately I…" He swallowed hard. "It's not a big deal, I swear. It's probably just me thinking and not liking what I'm thinking, that's all."

Gwen knew she had to proceed carefully. "And these voices, what do they have to say?"

Just then, JJ felt a sharp pain in his back. _No. Be quiet,_ he thought - or was that the other voice in his head? He couldn't tell. _You've told her too much as it is._

He swallowed hard. "Nothing worth hearing. It's just… for a sec I thought, maybe it's something other than me going nuts, maybe… maybe if I could just get that missing chunk of my memory back I could figure out what's me and what isn't cause I'm freaking tired of feeling weak and that's totally not me."

"Sounds like you're on the mend then." Gwen deliberately kept her tone light. "For what it's worth, you haven't gone mental, I don't think. Like I said, you're just trying to fill in the blanks."

JJ nodded. "Thanks. See you tomorrow I guess."

"Night." Gwen left the cell.

JJ lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. _You don't deserve to be free, boy,_ the voice in his head said, _and you know it. Roll over and close your eyes._

JJ obeyed, telling himself he was tired and wanted to try to sleep, but knowing deep down that someone else was in his brain and that person called the shots. He shuddered, frightened at that thought.

 _You. must. be. punished,_ the voice hissed.

JJ felt a sudden, sharp pain in his back, bad enough he had to bite his lip to stop from moaning with pain and embarrassing himself. The pain repeated three times, as if he were being hit repeatedly across his back. Then JJ was lying facedown on the floor of his room at home, not daring to cry despite the throbbing in his back and the burn of the carpet against his face. His dad was holding a whip and frowning down on him.

His dad said softly, "I had to hit you for your own good, Jack Junior. You must learn to listen."

Then JJ was back in his cell, his eyes blinking open and closed as he struggled to wake up and get rid of the bad dream. The voice said, quietly, almost hypnotically, _Go back to sleep but don't sleep deeply._

JJ obeyed. The voice said, in that same hypnotic tone, _You are guilty. You are to blame. You will remember that. Then you will awaken terrified and altogether willing to do what you are told to avoid further punishment._

Images flicked through JJ's mind, rapid fire, starting with him breaking the window and ending with him finding Paige's body on the floor, over and over and over. He whimpered as he began thrashing about in his sleep, desperately trying to avoid the memories of his guilt that wouldn't stop coming.

In the Hub, Martha said to Jack, "His dark matter count is spiking. I doubt he's going to fall deeply enough asleep for us to do the time jump."

Jack frowned. "There's no sedative you can administer?"

"I'm not sure how a sedative will interact with the dark matter. It could quiet his brain activity but if the dark matter fights back while he's at his most vulnerable, and us too…."

"Well, if he doesn't get to delta wave sleep naturally within the next 30 minutes, you're going to have to risk it. From what Gwen told us, the Black Guardian is communicating with him. We don't have time to figure out another solution. We have to do the time jump tonight."

"With all due respect, if there's a bad enough interaction we could lose him."

Jack's eyes flashed. "If we don't do the time jump we WILL lose him. Do whatever you have to to ensure he falls deeply enough asleep to go through the time vortex without additional ill effects."

"Yes, sir." Martha's voice was quiet. She stared at the monitor, praying that JJ achieved delta wave sleep naturally.

J.J. stared at Martha and Gwen as Martha readied the sedative. "Why this way?" he asked.

"We don't want you to get hurt," said Gwen, though she knew there were other reasons.

"Right," sighed Martha as she finished loading up the syringe. "It'll just be a tiny prick, and then it'll be all over."

J.J. gulped as Martha walked in, syringe in hand. She rubbed down his shoulder with an alcohol swab. She was just about to inject the syringe when J.J. doubled over in pain again.

"Argh!", he shouted in pain. Martha pulled back quickly. They watched as J.J. writhed in agony on the bed. When he opened his eyes, both women saw that they were black.

"This isn't good," said Gwen. "We can't take him in this state."

"But Jack-"

"Damn what Jack says," Gwen said sternly. "I'm telling you, you cannot do this. You didn't even touch him and the Black Guardian caused him pain. How much worse do you think it will be if we put him out? He could be devoured. We'll just have to find another way, yeah?"

Martha looked at J.J., who was beginning to calm down, but was still in noticeable discomfort. "Right," she said at last. "I'll go tell Jack."

Martha walked out of the room. Gwen sat on the bed, and put an arm around J.J. to try and soothe him.

A short time later, J.J., Jack and Martha stood waiting. Gwen entered.

"That's Rhys off, then," she said. "Someone's got to take care of young Anwen."

"Can't have a six year old left by herself," said Jack. "Last time that happened, it led to a terrifying parade of kids in gas masks."

J.J. was still trying to wrap his head around everything. "Let me get this straight, he said. "We're going to a parallel universe?"

"Yeah," said Jack. "Like in those science fiction films. Except this one's real. We're going to another Torchwood. There'll be people there who can help us better to figure out what's wrong."

J.J. looked at these people as if they were crazy, but Gwen tried to give him a reassuring smile, which helped. J.J. nodded.

"Okay," Jack said. "I promise, I am not trying to get fresh, but take my hand."

J.J. took one hand. Gwen took J.J.'s other. Martha joined her hands with Jack and Gwen,.

"You're gonna feel a slight tingling sensation," began Jack. "Then, you'll be lifted off your feet and sent hurling through space and time at a rate of naughts you never thought possible. Please keep your arms and legs together at all times, no pun intended."

"Will this hurt?" asked J.J.

"Oh yeah," Jack replied.

Jack pulled back the cuff of the right side of his jacket. He pressed a button on what looked to J.J. like a really bizarre watch. "Hang tight, everyone," he said. "It's been a fair few years since I've done this."

Then, just like that, they were gone. They disappeared from the Hub and were sent hurling through the time vortex.


	9. Chapter 9 - Torchwood 2007

Chad walked through the main room of the DiMera Mansion. He walked over to Stefano's old study, where he found André sitting at the chess board.

"There you are," he said.

André looked up. "Perceptive today, aren't you?"

"Where've you been?" asked Chad.

"Here," André replied. "The entire time."

"The entire time?" Chad didn't believe him.

André nodded. "What is it that I can do for you, little brother?"

"Believe me," Chad began, "I'm not coming to you because I wanted to enjoy your company. I have questions."

André smirked. "Such as?"

"I've heard noises. Peculiar noises."

"Are you sure it isn't your excuse for a brain rattling around in that empty head of yours?" smiled André.

"These noises," continued Chad, ignoring André comment, "have been coming from the basement. I've been hearing them for the last few days now."

André chuckled and stood up. "Noises from the basement? Is that really the best you can do?". He shook his head. "Come now, Chad. This mansion is old. Decades old. All houses have their little creaks, their little 'strange noises', as you call it. It's nothing unusual, surely you must know this."

"It didn't sound like normal house settling noises," Chad said, indignantly. "I know what it sounds like when a house settles, and this isn't it. This was a hissing noise. Like gas coming out of a tube. That's not the only one, though. There have been several others. Mechanical noises. Machines powering up. And voices. Not just yours, but that of a German man."

André gave Chad a pitying look. "My dear Chad," he said, "I am a cultured man. I enjoy German cinema, that is the voices you've heard. And these noises you insist on bringing up, these are nothing unusual. Hissing, mechanical noises, all of them can be explained by household appliances. The air conditioning, the water softener. I'll tell Harold to have that washing machine fixed, as even I will admit it is making a great deal of noise."

"That's not it," said Chad. "Not at all. These don't sound like a washer and dryer, or a...a fan or the air conditioning."

"Then what is it that they sound like?" André asked innocently.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Chad. "That's just it. For all I know, it could be a cloning machine or something. Anything's possible here. I don't know what is going on in this house."

"Perhaps it's best that you don't," replied André. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have no more time for your wildly fanciful imagination. Cloning machines, indeed."

André turned to leave, but Chad stopped in.

"And that's another thing," Chad began again. "You go missing for hours on end. You're gone at meal times. You're barely here. A few months ago, I couldn't get rid of you, but now you're almost never around. What exactly is it that you do all the time?"

André gave Chad a look.

"Since when do I answer to you," whispered André. "You've spent years living an entirely different life. Then, you finally learn that you're a DiMera and suddenly it all changes? Please, Chad. You've made it quite clear that you've no genuine interest in this family. Don't start pretending now. Father and I have done everything to convince you that la famiglia is what is most important, but you only have your mind on that insipid romance with the sickeningly sweet Abigail Deveraux. And now, you come to me and demand answers about my work. I am the only one keeping our family name alive!"

Chad took a step back. He began to realize he was going too far. He had heard rumors that André could be a loose cannon, but hadn't expected this amount of anger. The worst part was, that André seemed fairly calm while saying all of this. He barely even raised his voice.

"Get out of my way, Chad," he finished. "I have business to attend to. Family business."

André pushed his way past Chad and walked out. Chad went over to the door he walked into. He had never noticed that particular door there before. He didn't dare go down there at the moment, though, or he would risk André's wrath.

Everything was all distorted around JJ. He couldn't see where they were exactly; he felt dizzy and like he was surrounded by nothing. He heard Gwen's voice but it was from far away and he couldn't make out what she was saying.

All of a sudden he had a memory flash, of the cop taking him out of the room, sneering at him that he was coming with him. He remembered being afraid, terribly afraid… he began to feel that all over again.

He heard a roaring in his ears, like a cold wind, and he knew he was supposed to listen, that he was being told what to do and if he didn't obey there'd be hell to pay, but he couldn't hear, didn't know what was being asked of him.

He began to sob, feeling embarrassed and frightened. What was wrong with him? He was never weak and he didn't let anyone push him around, ever. He would fight to the death rather than submit to someone else's will.

He suddenly remembered the cops holding their guns on him. You should have let them shoot you, the voice in his head said. You are too weak and too worthless to live.

Then he heard Gwen's voice, low at first, then louder. He couldn't understand what she was saying. Then he realized she was singing, singing in some language he didn't understand, but it sounded like a lullaby.

Don't trust her, the voice in his head said, and he felt a twinge in his back as a reminder of what would happen to him if he disobeyed. But he didn't care. Gwen was the closest thing to Paige he could ever get now, not that he thought of her that way. His thoughts were all scrambled up and he didn't know how to explain to himself what he meant. All he knew was he didn't care if he got punished for it, he wasn't gonna push away the friendship of the only person in his new world that loved him half as much as Paige had.

He opened his eyes, groaning softly, knowing he would pay for his defiance later, when he was alone, and telling himself he didn't care. Gwen said, "You made it, then. No, don't try to sit up yet. Take a moment to get your bearings. Time jumping can scramble you all up."

"I heard…" JJ said weakly, wanting to tell her that he'd heard the other voice in his head again and he knew for sure that it wasn't his own voice, but he felt a sudden, sharp pain across his back again.

Not another word, he thought, No, that wasn't him. It was whoever was trying to control him.

JJ groaned. "I wanna be free," he said, his voice shaking.

"Soon," Gwen said, misunderstanding what he was trying to tell her. "Let's check you out, make sure there's no ill effects from the teleportation, yeah?"

JJ nodded. Gwen smiled at him sympathetically and he tried to smile back, but his mind was moving quickly. He had to find a way to tolerate the pain next time it came. He had to be free to say and do what he wanted. He couldn't keep on listening to this freaking voice in his head.

Martha came over to him. "Lie still, okay? We need to check you out before we can let you come upstairs with us. We teleported into the tomb area by the cells so that no-one will know we're here til we're ready."

"My back hurts," JJ mumbled, hoping that would scare away whoever it was who kept hurting him. Martha nodded and ran the scanner over him. "His dark matter is fluctuating and there's some anomalies in his brain wave function. I'll tell Jack to make sure we raid the vaults for the proper technology before we meet the others. Stay here with Gwen, JJ. You need to rest a minute."

Meanwhile, upstairs in the main Hub, Owen said, "You know what we should do, long as Jack's not here?"

"Go through all these alien sightings logged in the computer system overnight so that he can be impressed with a job well done when he returns?" Tosh asked.

"Boring," Owen said. "Though you have a point. I was going to suggest we make a game of it. I've set up a virtual basketball simulator and - "

"That's a good use of resources," Tosh commented.

"You're no fun. Where's Ianto with our coffee anyway?"

Ianto had headed down to the vault to inventory some items for Jack. Jack was especially interested in how alien technology could be used to enhance sex, and Ianto was happy to oblige. While he was out, he could make a list for them to go over later.

He was shocked to find Jack in the vaults with a young woman. Jack was doing an inventory of his own, taking out all the immobilization devices and examining them. Ianto sneaked up closer, ignoring the pang of jealousy shooting through him. He'd known Jack liked the ladies as well as the gents, and everything in between for that matter. What business did he have getting tied up in knots over it?

"Are you sure these are strong enough?" Martha asked him.

"There's no guarantees when it comes to the Black Guardian. But these are supposed to be able to immobilize the Hythanian Nestor, the strongest monster in the universe. Surely they can handle one Earth-born boy should he fall too far into the control of the dark matter he's been infected with. These are only to be used in case of absolute emergency, if we become aware that our visitor is being directed to cause immediate harm to himself or to us. My working theory is that once immobilized, the Black Guardian will be forced to talk to us directly and we can then find out what he wants with the boy and take it from there."

Ianto cleared his throat. "Jack. I thought you were gone on a three day expedition. I didn't think it would be in the vaults."

"Right. You never know when you're going to need a portable immobilizer. The more prepared you are the better. Though I have to admit I prefer to travel light."

"Coffee?" Martha interrupted, taking a thermos out of her sack. "I know that's usually your line but I thought we'd relieve you of the burden for a day."

Ianto looked puzzled. "And you are?"

"Martha Jones," Martha said. "A colleague of Owen's." She handed the thermos to Ianto.

"Thanks." Ianto sniffed it. It smelled like caramel, his favorite. He sipped the coffee. Martha said, softly, as he drank, "There's nothing unusual about us being here. We've been here all along after all, you just met us here to see if you could lend a hand with our dark matter problem."

Ianto blinked. The ret-con was taking effect. "You'll have to excuse me," he said. "I need to bring some of this excellent coffee to the others." He left.

When Ianto came upstairs, Tosh and Owen were still arguing. He poured the coffee from the thermos into two cups and brought one to each of them.

"It's about time," Owen said.

"Owen needs to keep his strength up. He has very important work to do," Tosh added.

Owen sipped his coffee. Then he said, "What am I wasting time up here for? Surely Jack wants me to run tests on the boy even if he hasn't said so. Besides, dark matter infection could be the pinnacle of my career here at Torchwood." He jumped up and ran off.

"What's he on about?" Tosh asked.

Ianto smiled at her, blankly. "You mean you don't remember?" he asked. "You really must be sleep-deprived. Don't you recall Jack - "

Tosh put her coffee down. "I'd better take the rest of this down to the lab. Owen surely needs me to enhance the computers to assist in his search for a cure for dark matter."

"All right," Martha said. "One down, two to go. As soon as he delivers that coffee, we'll have 72 hours to rid JJ of the Black Guardian before my newly improved Ret-con recipe wears off." She glanced at Jack. "I hope this works. I didn't want to say anything, but those abnormalities I found in JJ's brain waves after the time jump…" She swallowed hard. "The Black Guardian isn't just trying to fill him with dark matter. He's trying to change his brain chemistry. There was definite evidence of post-hypnotic suggestion."

"Suggestion to do what?"

Martha shook her head. "Perhaps Owen can find out. But I suspect that the Black Guardian is going to make a move soon, and it's going to involve forcing our young visitor to do something he won't be able to live with once his free will is restored."


End file.
